All Entries Tagged With: "Michael Del Zotto"
Running On Empty
So many times this season, the New York Rangers found a way to eke out a win with less than a 60-minute effort and Eastern Conference Final has followed suit. In games 1 and 3, the Rangers managed to hold on through the onslaught for 2 periods, thanks to the defense and, most importantly, the [...]
Hockey Independent Playoff Roundtable: Conference Semi-Finals Predictions
— Welcome back to the Hockey Independent roundtable where five writers from the HI staff have come together once again to provide you all with our Conference Semi Finals predictions. The contributing authors to today’s piece will be Cris Cohen (New York Rangers), Alex Muscat (Detroit Red Wings), Bill Philp (Tampa Bay Lightning) and [...]
The Great Gabby Revival
The New York Rangers were handed a nice gift before their Sunday night tilt with the Boston Bruins at Madison Square Garden. The Philadelphia Flyers defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 6-4 earlier in the day, reducing the Rangers’ magic number to 1. At minimum, all the Rangers needed to do to clinch the Atlantic Division and [...]
Boston’s Struggles Continue As Lundqvist Blanks B’s At TD Garden
Back in November, fans and hockey pundits alike began to recognize the fact that all the Bruins needed in order to secure themselves a spot in the Eastern Conference playoffs, and a chance to defend their Championship was to play .500 hockey the rest of the way. These sentiments would echo on through December and [...]
Tampa Bay Lightning Week in Review – Featuring The Quarterdeck Log
The Tampa Bay Lightning is 24-25-6 with 54 points through 55 games. After 55 games last season, the Bolts were 33-17-5 with 71 points. The Bolts are in fourth place in the Southeast Division and trail the division leading Florida Panthers by eleven points. Tampa Bay is in 12th place in the 15 team Eastern Conference, eight points out [...]
At The Midpoint, The Rangers Are Surpassing Expectations
At the midway point of the season, the New York Rangers are 28-10-4. They have put together 4, 5-plus game win streaks in the first half of the season, something no other Rangers team has done and have not yet had a losing streak of more than 2 games. If someone told you when they [...]
24/7, Episode 4 – The Rangers Recap
I was oh-so-looking forward to recapping last week’s episode, where Michael Del Zotto’s ugly Christmas sweater brought a whole new spin on “reindeer games”, and you just prayed Marian Gaborik didn’t injure himself lugging that tree to his apartment although you already knew he didn’t. Unfortunately, reality hit my less-than-humongous-big universe last week and I was [...]
Balance The Key To Rangers’ Success
Two months ago, the New York Rangers finally played at home after a long road trip to open the season. The team returned from their 7-game trip with 9 points, but they came in incomplete, undisciplined efforts. They turned in a mediocre performance in a loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on October 27th, and [...]
24/7, Episode 1 – The Rangers Recap
The NHL struck gold when it began the Winter Classic in 2008. They then upped the ante for the 2011 edition, partnering with HBO Sports to bring us the “24/7: Road To The Winter Classic” series, in which we got an unprecedented, behind-the-scenes look at a month in the life of the NHL. And now, [...]
Tampa Bay Lightning Week in Review – Featuring The Quarterdeck Log
The Tampa Bay Lightning are 12-15-2 with 26 points through 29 games. After 29 games last season, the Bolts were 15-10-4 with 34 points. The Lightning are in fourth place in the Southeast Division and trail the division leading Florida Panthers by eleven points. Tampa Bay has fallen to 13th place in the 15 team Eastern Conference. After 29 [...]
A Very Tortorella Thanksgiving
The roaring fire is crackling in the fireplace. The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is on the big-screen television, and is just wrapping up. Santa Claus’ float rolls though Herald Square. The grandfather clock strikes noon. John Tortorella (scowling): “Well, that sucked from head to toe.” Tortorella changes the channel to FOX for the first football [...]
Getting To Know Blue
On November 16th, the New York Rangers held a question-and-answer event for season subscribers as a way to get to know some of their Broadway Blueshirts a little bit better. Fans had an opportunity to get some insights from defensemen Michael Del Zotto and Ryan McDonagh and forwards Brad Richards, Marian Gaborik, Brandon Dubinsky and Andre [...]
Back From Sweden, Rangers Look To Regroup And Rebound
Unfortunately for the New York Rangers, there was no Stepan-esque magic from a year ago as they opened their season in Stockholm, Sweden. Rather, the Rangers returned to North America with 2 points after a 3-2 overtime loss to the Los Angeles Kings and a 2-1 shootout loss to the Anaheim Ducks. The Rangers don’t really have [...]
Rangers’ Puzzle Falling Into Place
Unlike other teams in the National Hockey League these last few weeks, the New York Rangers have not undergone a radical makeover. They did get the big fish of the free agency pond in Brad Richards and signed Mike Rupp. They also re-signed one of their own UFAs, Ruslan Fedotenko, to a 1-year deal. But besides [...]
Rangers Keep Getting Defensive
The clock was ticking for the Calgary Flames on Wednesday. If they couldn’t sign defenseman Tim Erixon, their 2009 first round draft pick (23rd overall), to a contract by 5PM, he would’ve become eligible to reenter this year’s draft and the Flames would’ve lost a top prospect with not much to show for it. Calgary’s [...]
Jackets Need Major Overhaul. Plus – How to get Parise?
Another disappointing season in the books for the Jackets. A nice run early and a stellar run of play in February brought some false hopes, and as usual I fell for the false goods they were selling me and believed they had a chance. But in they end, “they were who we thought they were.” [...]
Rangers Acquire McCabe
The New York Rangers brought to reality a trade that had been speculated on for quite awhile, acquiring 35-year-old defenseman Bryan McCabe from the Florida Panthers. The Rangers sent forward Tim Kennedy and their 3rd round pick in the 2011 Entry Draft to the Panthers. McCabe clearly does not fit within the “go with the [...]
As Rangers Heal, Decisions Loom
Having already lost 193 man-power games this season, most of the New York Rangers have had close to a week to rest and more importantly, heal. Monday afternoon, Ryan Callahan, Dan Girardi, Vinny Prospal, Brandon Dubinsky and Erik Christensen participated in practice, and without non-contact jerseys. Word is that Callahan (broken hand) and Girardi (ribs) [...]
The Skating Wounded
Perhaps the Dolans should change Madison Square Garden’s acronym from MSG to MASH. The Rangers managed to rebound from a poor defensive effort in Carolina and came from behind twice to defeat the Atlanta Thrashers 3-2 in a shootout Saturday night. Wojtek Wolski (with his 3rd since coming over from Phoenix) and Brian Boyle (continuing [...]
Mats All, Folks!
At the midway point the New York Rangers were at an important crossroads in their season. Tonight they took on the Carolina Hurricanes at Madison Square Garden. It was only game 41, but still important. Heading into the matchup Carolina, with 2 games in hand, were 6 points behind the Rangers. The Rangers, in turn, [...]
